Video: How Not To Start A Race

By Tom Martin

August 15, 2017

As we all know, the first lap of a race, and especially the first corner, can be an "interesting" time in a race, shall we say? Indeed, there are lots of racers trying to make up positions when so many cars are clustered together. And with all that jockeying for position, opportunities to pass will suddenly appear (and disappear), which, when combined with a little red mist leads to mistakes.

We recently saw such a situation in Round 7 and then again in Round 8 of Pirelli World Challenge TC at Utah Motorsports Campus. Take a look at the video screenshots from Round 7, and you'll see pole sitter Paul Holton throwing away the race in the first turn. He is in the silver and red Audi that you see in the upper right corner of the top image, somewhere near the Colorado border. But, he doesn't really do any harm. However, you'll also see a white and red BMW getting into Turn 1 way too deep. He then, as shown in the second picture, comes back onto the track rather suddenly and takes out a large group of cars.

You might think overzealous drivers would calm down a bit for the second race of the day, but you would be wrong. Watch this video, which shows the standing start for race 2 in which pole-sitter Holton hits Tony Rivera as they go into T1 on the first lap. The accordion effect is pretty big:

It is one thing to throw your own race away. It is another to take people out, destroy their cars and possibly end their seasons. You can't know all of that going into a turn, but you can drive more or less conservatively.